1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic components, and more particularly, to an electronic component having an antenna structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the rapid development of electronic industries, electronic products are developed toward the trend of multi-function and high performance. Wireless communication technologies have been widely applied in various kinds of consumer electronic products for receiving or transmitting various wireless signals. To meet the miniaturization requirement of consumer electronic products, wireless communication modules are becoming lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller. For example, patch antennas have been widely applied in wireless communication modules of electronic products such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) due to their advantages of small size, light weight and easy fabrication.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional wireless communication module. Referring to FIG. 1, the wireless communication module 1 has: a substrate 10, a plurality of electronic elements 11 disposed on and electrically connected to the substrate 10, an antenna structure 12 disposed on the substrate 10, and an encapsulant 13. The substrate 10 is a circuit board and has a rectangular shape. The antenna structure 12 is of a planar type. The antenna structure 12 has an antenna body 120 and a conductive wire 121 electrically connecting the antenna body 120 to the electronic elements 11. The encapsulant 13 encapsulates the electronic elements 11 and a portion of the conductive wire 121.
However, during the fabrication process of the wireless communication module 1, based on the characteristic of electromagnetic radiation between the planar-type antenna structure 12 and the electronic elements 11 and limitation of the size of the planar-type antenna structure 12, the antenna body 120 of the antenna structure 12 cannot be integrally fabricated with the electronic elements 11. That is, only the electronic elements 11 are covered by the encapsulant 13 while the antenna body 120 of the antenna structure 12 is exposed from the encapsulant 13. Therefore, the molding process for forming the encapsulant 13 needs to use a mold having a size corresponding to the electronic element-mounting region instead of the overall substrate 10, thus complicating the molding process.
Further, the planar-type antenna structure 12 requires an additional region on the substrate 10 (i.e., a region where the encapsulant 13 is not formed) for disposing the antenna body 120. As such, the width of the substrate 10 is increased, thus increasing the width of the wireless communication module 1 and hindering miniaturization of the wireless communication module 1.
Therefore, how to overcome the above-described drawbacks has become urgent.